Today, my Advent calendar tells me to read chapter 5 of Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey or watch Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005). I’ve learned why Advent calendars here have such tiny chocolates. I stocked my Advent calendar with Lindt truffles, and I cannot eat such rich chocolate every day. There are six set to the side for when someone is feeling indulgent because I just can’t. Haha! The Harry Potter trivia calendar swings wildly between very obscure to embarrassingly easy questions. It’s still fun to check every day.
We saw the Back to the Future musical. (pause for dramatic effect) It was unbelievably good. Hugely faithful to the movie (The biggest change was they traded death by terrorists to death by radiation poisoning), the iconic theme worked into much of the soundtrack, and thoroughly engrossing. The theater was lit like 1980’s Tron. Great special effects. Funny. Great voices. Our Marty was understudy Will Haswell (I think). He did beautifully. Hugh Coles was a hysterical George McFly. His laugh and movements were on point. Doc was played by Roger Bart, who provided the singing voice for young Hercules in the 1997 Disney film (among many other roles). Fantastic stage presence and comedic timing. Yes, I do intend to keep speaking in fragments. When the music started and the DeLorean’s time travel display started counting us down from 2021 to 1985, we got chills. And the map display taking us from London to Hill Valley. I understand that part of my enthusiasm is rooted in nostalgia, but this was one of the most enjoyable stage shows I’ve ever seen.
I attempted to dry orange slices in the air fryer to make into a rustic garland. Well… When people on Food Network call something rustic, they mean it’s ugly as hell. With that in mind, I can definitely pull off rustic with these slices. They are no longer oranges; they are browns. Crafts have never really been my forte, but I will keep on trying. I take comfort in a memory from about a decade ago….
My mom, my baby sister, and I were gathered around the kitchen table. My mother was going to make a Christmas wreath out of pine cones. I was cutting paper snowflakes. Little baby sister was pushed up to the table in her highchair. Pine cones covered much of the table’s surface. Got the picture? Sweet. Cute. Family moment. At some point, I spotted a little critter. A tiny, short wormy worm. Gross. We disposed of it. A couple minutes later, my mom found one. Eww! Gone. My mom started wielding the glue gun. Suddenly, they were everywhere. Holy shit. EVERYWHERE. Maggots completely covered the table. My mom screamed and rescued the baby from the ominous crawl of a couple hundred larvae. Good god. We swept them into a bin and threw them outside along with all of the pine cones. The wreath went into the garbage outside, and the table was scrubbed down with bleach. The memory still cracks me up. My mom couldn’t see the humor in this scene for years. Now she can. Pro tip for all you do-it-yourselfers out there: When using pine cones you collect in nature for various crafts, always soak and bake them first because they often contain fly larvae. And you don’t want your adult children chanting “Christmas maggots!” at you for the rest of your life.
Magical Musings 